Dos Equis guy in passenger seat doesn't qualify for HOV

FIFE, Wash. — Carpool-lane violators are nothing new on interstates across the USA.

But one Washington driver tried his luck Tuesday with a lifesized-version of "The Most Interesting Man in the World."

It was a most interesting variation on the theme of getting extra passengers into a car that had only a driver. But the life-sized cardboard cutout of the Dos Equis guy, dressed in a windbreaker and properly buckled into the passenger seat of a car, didn't fool a Washington State Patrol officer.

When the officer asked the driver about his companion, the man replied, "He's my best friend." Officials did not release the man's name.

"I don't always violate the HOV lane law ... but when I do, I get a $124 ticket," tweeted Trooper Guy Gill, state patrol spokesman based in nearby Tacoma, Wash. "We'll give him an A for creativity."

Late last month, a man was pulled over on the Long Island Expressway in Dix Hills, N.Y., for speeding. Only after the officer asked James Campbell, 56, of Brentwood, N.Y., for his passenger's identification did he realize that the torso in the passenger seat was made of wood, according to WABC-TV, New York.

In 2010, Washington state trooper found another man using a stuffed doll from the children's show Go Diego, Go as his passenger.

And officers across the country have started documenting their finds.